Dear Tracy & Luvd_Lioness, Sounds like you both had thrifty shopping trips!  Tracy, that ice cream price if for more than a qt is great! Love inHim, Deb

Dear All, I shopped at Whole Foods this AM, with the lovely assistance of a congregant from my shul/synagogue.

My 1st shopping trip of the month is always my largest.  I had $225.65 in SNAP/Food Stampts EBT on 7/1.  I spent $72.40 today, & my balance is $153.25.

I bought:

2 jars of organic mushroom marinara pasta sauce (25 oz) (@ $2.49)

1/2 gallon skim milk ($1.49)

frozen organic cheese ravioli & cheese tortellini (each 22 oz) (@ $4.99 -- each provides 5-6 meals!)

4" pot of organic dill weed ($3.49 -- as last year, my cliantro wouldn't grow; I have better hopes for this dill.  So far, my cherry tomatoes, basil, thyme, & chives are thriving, & my parsley is hanging in there, even thoguh the window is Northern exposure.)  Of course, with the spraying to keep the apt free from reoccurence of bedbugs, the organic plants no longer are ....

a 1/2 lb of cherry vanilla granola ($1.88)

2 Amy's pot pies, one broccoli cheese, one veggie/tofu (@ $3.49)

Alexis ranch waffle fries (chips -- I have a coupon for a free bag by mail, otehrwise I wouldn't buy chips; 5 oz, $3.49)

46 oz organic tomato juice ($2.99)

frozen cut tri-color bell pepper strips ($2.49 for 1 lb -- this was the oone thing I forgot to stock up on cut-up in teh freezer from my aides)

an ear of white corn for my dinner today (40cents)

8 oz Monterey jack cheese ($2.99)

6 oz feta cheese crumbles ($3.99)

1 lb turkey sausage ($5.49)

2 yellow peaches ($2.12)

6 Fair Trade bananas @ 89cents/lb ($2.39)

1/2 gallon organic apple juice ($3.99)

just about a lb bulk organic prunes ($5.75)

10 oz organic mini whole wheat pitas ($3.79)

chocolate chips (12 oz, $1.99)

1/3 lb organic date pieces (dusted with oats) ($1.28)

alllmost 0.3 lb oraganic white figs ($1.54)

Yours in Him, Deb

 I am still waiting to get my EBT for July.  Here in Indiana they are give out over the first 10 days of the month.  We will get ours tomorrow!  This is my third month using them.  They are a real blessing, especially with my DH not being able to work.

Dear LM, Yes,  indeed, SNAP/Food Stamps is a great blessing, & I am so glad that you have the benefit.  Yours in Him, Deb

I am very thankful to have the benefit, it makes a huge difference in our lives right now.  

I have shopped quite a bit the last few days, with veggie burgers, buns, biscuits, today bought a big bag of potaotes, two bags of choc chips, hummus, pita chips,  a watermelon, and bunch of baking supplies. I bought pecans for the chocolate cobbler in the recipes section.  I have 726 left on my card until the 13th.  

The ice cream, Deb, was that silly size that is less than a half gallon, but it was a bargain. I don't know who they think they are fooling by making things 10-25% smaller. 

I got my EBT for July!  Now I can get a few items.  I was told by one of the employees at the local office that I should be receiving a budget of sorts in the mail telling me how they determine my allotment.  I haven't received anything in the mail other than the card in the beginning.  Have any of you got anything like that, or even heard of anything like that?

Dear LM, In CA, it is called a Notice of Action, & it is sent out every tiime there is a change in your allotment amount.  If you don't understnad yours when it coomes (it might have a different name), we may be able to help you understand it.  Yours in Him, Deb

Dear Tracy, First of all, it's exemplary that you have so much money left with jsut a week to go in your  reneewal cycle!  Secondly, I completely agree about under-sized packaging. You absollutely have to take a calculator to the store these days to see what's what in teeerms of prices by the oz.  Love in Hiim, Deb

 I spent a lot of money yesterday at the coop- I took all 7 of the kids, and my idea was to buy 2 quarts of the raw honey at 11.79 each, and two packages of the real salt, and then let the kids pick some favorites. The picked naan, sourdough bread, lemon spinach couscous, several little kinds of cheese, spinach noodles, ice cream- three kinds, blackberry, peanut butter chocolate, and butter brickle, and I added about 5 more kinds of bread-such as Jewish rye and an artichoke focaccia, two boxes of veggie burgers, different kinds than we can get- I  purchased Amy's BBQ and Cheddar Veggie kinds, three energy bars, parmasean for the spinach noodles, tomatoes, coconut yogurt, drinkable yogurt- Deb, you would like it, it was tart like kefir, but thicker, and one yogurt and two bug bites.  

We ate string cheese in the car, the focacchia for lunch, the cous cous and naan tonight for dinner, the nature burgers last night..  I spent $148 at the coop, but we only go about every two months.  I have a lot of the good bread in the freezer.  

I still have $569 on the card, until the 13th.  

I have family coming in this weekend, I am hoping to be able to offer a meal for my siblings,parents, aunts, cousin- maybe 35 people, as my gramma died last night, and my house is the biggest.  I have changes that are coming in my family, and it would be nice to be able to gather at my table this weekend.  I am trying to think of something I can prepare ahead of time, I am thinking of three lasagnas, and then get good bread and make a fruit plate, there is a lot of fruit on sale right now.  Brownies, burnt sugar cake, maybe make a cookie plate with some of the cookies my gramma made.  I know her lace cookies won't work in the summer, but could make some of the candies she made, buckeyes and the mashed potato coconut candies, Russian teacakes.  

Dear Tracy, Like Susie, I am very sorry to hear of your tragic loss.  It doesn't matteee how old folllks are when they pass, or even wheether htey died in their sleepo (you didn't mentiiiiion) rather than suffered, but they are still kith & kin, & they leave a hole in our llives.  I hope that your famillly gathering is replete wwith stories about yoru Gramma & all th e wonderful things she did for you all.

And, BTW, congratulations on keeping on course with your resolutionn to have $500 left on SNAP/Food Stamps EBT come the 13th, renewal date!

Love in Him, Deb